{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-demands-energy-department-terminate-government-funding-grain-belt-express/", "Hawley Demands Energy Department Terminate Government Funding Grain Belt Express", "2025-06-25", "2025", "2025-06", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a follow-up letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright demanding he terminate the more than $4 billion in federal funding for the Grain Belt Express, an elitist land grab harming Missouri farmers and ranchers.\n\nIn the letter, Senator Hawley wrote, \u201cI write to you once again to urge the termination of the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) $4.9 billion conditional loan to the green-energy Grain Belt Express (GBE) transmission line. Your department recently terminated 24 awards issued by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), citing \u2018that these projects failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.\u2019 Yet the GBE conditional loan has not been cancelled.\u201d\n\nHe continued, \u201cI have repeatedly raised concerns to DOE about the viability of this transmission line. Most recently, on March 25, 2025, I wrote to you after officials from the Department of Energy confirmed that your department is moving forward with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process, a key step in approving the loan. I have yet to receive a substantive response to that letter.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley concluded, \u201cDuring a recent House hearing, you stated, \u2018It is deeply concerning how billions of dollars were rushed out the door without proper due diligence in the final days of the Biden administration.\u2019 I completely agree. The Biden administration\u2019s Department of Energy approved the loan to the Grain Belt Express at the eleventh hour\u2026 Your department should be taking every possible action to stop this loan \u2013 not only to save taxpayer\u2019s money, but also to save generational land from being ripped away from families and hard-working farmers and ranchers in Missouri. Now is the time to act. I urge you to immediately terminate all agency actions related to the Department of Energy\u2019s $4.9 billion loan to the Grain Belt Express.\u201d\n\nRead the full letter here or below.\n\nJune 25, 2025", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:34:38Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-demands-energy-department-terminate-government-funding-grain-belt-express/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.611120067536831, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}